Recognizing Teachers’ PLACE, PACE, and PROGRESS in Instructional Coaching

When coaching, there are 3 P’s to keep in mind as you support teachers’ ongoing growth: Place (where someone is), Pace (the rate of movement), and progress (the anticipated direction of movement).

Place
 
Learning is a dynamic process: with each step, we are at a different place in the journey. The terrain changes, and so the support needed for moving forward must also change.
 
I’m sure you have experienced this as a learner when you were acquiring new ideas and skills. You have also experienced it as a teacher, adjusting scaffolds to ensure that a learning activity was within a student’s zone of proximal development.
 
As a coach, understanding where a teacher is in their pedagogical learning journey gives you a place to start. Observation and conversation are “pre-assessment” tools for figuring out a teacher’s current place.
 
Pace
Teachers learn at different rates, just like their students. Differentiated coaching includes varying our coaching to align with the teacher’s gains, matching mediation to motion.
 
Some teachers are quick and spontaneous; others are deliberate and reflective. Matching a teacher’s learning pace maintains interest and appropriate challenge. Sometimes, we accelerate to advance; other times we slow down and go deep. We accommodate their appetite for new understandings.
 
We adjust the pace of our coaching to match the teacher’s learning needs. Adjusting the pace includes determining which coaching move will be most effective (modeling, recommending, asking questions, affirming, or praising), and leaning into that move. We’ll still include the other moves in our work, of course, but recognizing which move is most likely to be a lever for change keeps our support aligned with the teacher’s learning pace.
 
Progress
 
By intentionally selecting from among the coaching moves, coaches nurture growth. Sometimes growth is measured not in leaps and bounds, but in inches. Whether improvement is like turning on a light switch or a more gradual sunrise, what matters is the direction of change. Are we making progress? You don’t have to be blooming to be growing.*  Coaching work is a cycle of growth and change for both teacher and coach.
 
Because progress can be incremental, changes that happen in inches rather than miles may not be apparent to the teacher, who lives through them minute by minute. Praise can magnify movement so that it is visible to teachers. As an occasional visitor or thinking partner, coaches are in a better position to recognize cumulative change, and your praise of progress can be revealing and bolstering to the teacher. Acknowledging progress with comparative “before and after” verbs, like smoother, clearer, and deeper, is a healthy form of comparison that helps teachers recognize their own progress.
 
I’ve included two visuals of the Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) coaching model below. The GIR Model helps coaches carefully consider a dynamic process for supporting growth. Differentiated coaching means recognizing teachers’ place, pace, and progress, and then varying the supports provided as those you work with gain experience and expertise, one step at a time.

*https://www.women-encouraged.com/blog/podcast-episode-6-you-dont-have-to-be-blooming-to-be-growing-with-ruth-chou-simons

 

 

This week, you might want to take a look at:

Using Super Bowl ads in the classroom:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/20198/teach-media-literacy-super-bowl-ads/
 
 
Spread positivity – morale boosts for teachers:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/weekly-morale-boost-teachers
 
 
Notebook pages for selecting writing topics:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/five-notebook-pages-i-cant-live-without-and-neither-should-students/
 
 
Reminder to talk “with” students, not “at” them (keep watching…):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nyr1OizVo0
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Instagram @Vicki_Collet_Educator, on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch and Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com
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Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! TODAY you can still use the code: JAN2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
 

Considering Together

The role of instructional coaches often bridges between consultant, counselor, and co-laborer. You don’t have to be just one or the other. A healthy, relationship of interdependence occurs when ideas that are offered up become springboards for further thought. We cultivate solutions together.
 
When we meet with teachers, we can instruct and build each other, jointly working and planning. Collaboration draws us together, strengthening relationships of trust.
 

Often, when I’m coaching a team, I throw out an idea. Someone adds to it, then someone else. We volley the idea around until we have a plan. It’s not my idea anymore – it’s our idea. It works the same way when one of the teachers on the team is the first to propose an idea and we all jump in. The pieces of the puzzle were scattered among us: We each brought our thought, and the plan was stronger because we counseled together.
 
When I talked with Melanie, a seventh-grade language arts teacher, about her ideas for an end-of-year project, we jumped into reciprocal planning. She wanted the project to be both fun and meaningful. She already had ideas about having students create a memoir of sorts – an opportunity to reminisce about their time in seventh grade. We brainstormed together a list of prompts to start students thinking. What was their funniest memory from the year? Their proudest moment? Their favorite book? Then we generated sentence starters to get students unstuck in case they felt writer’s block. The mini-unit was a shared creation that surpassed what either of us would have done alone. Our co-planning conversation was a productive time together, a collaborative experience.
 
Coaches and teachers can work as colleagues who freely give one another both candid feedback and support. Working together with colleagues on the complex issues that educators face strengthens our mutual respect. We can speak constructively to one another, pushing our practice. As we bridge various stances in our work with teachers, we can lean into the collaborator role, recognizing the assets each educator brings to the work.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
When coaches get too many “other duties as assigned”:
 
https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2018/08/has_instructional_coaching_become_a_dumping_ground.html
 
 
Using sticky notes to increase understanding of the text:
 
https://readingyear.blogspot.com/2016/09/still-learning-to-read-sticky-notes.html
 
 
More ways to use graphic organizers:
 
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/graphic-organizer/
 
 
Infusing poetic techniques into writing:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/infusing-poetic-techniques-in-our-writing/
 
 
Teaming with parents for social-emotional learning:
 
https://www.the74million.org/article/the-special-relationship-parents-and-teachers-are-critical-partners-in-the-work-of-social-emotional-learning/
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch and Twitter and Instagram @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com
---------------------------------
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! TODAY you can still use the code: JAN2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
 

This week, you might want to take a look at:

Releasing Resistance thru Instructional Coaching

During physical therapy, a resistance band is often used to increase the effectiveness of exercise. It definitely makes the muscles work harder, and that is just what is needed.
 
Ideas and initiatives that are viewed as imposed will almost certainly create resistance (see last week’s post for ways this resistance might be expressed). If you’re on board with the initiative (or feel obligated to support it), you can use resistance to increase effectiveness, just like a resistance band does.
 
Resistance that is brought to the surface creates opportunities for dialogue. When resistance is expressed, you will better understand concerns, and the concerns can be addressed, either internally with the teacher or by moving toward actionable resolution.
 
Here’s an extreme example: A school that I was working with had the awesome goal of creating a schoolwide culture of reading. The principal ordained 9:00 am – 9:20 am as Sustained Silent Reading Time – every person (adult and child) in the school would have a book in their hands and be reading silently during that time. The idea sounded good on the surface and the principal had the best of intentions. But it was August, and most kindergartners and first graders didn’t have much reading stamina, and most in that age group could not read silently (if at all). At first, the teachers on these teams just grumbled silently among themselves about it. But when I took the concern to the principal, it was quickly resolved, providing flexibility in the younger grades.
 
Here’s another example: a districtwide adoption of new literacy materials came with some “must-do’s” for teachers, including a structured (research-based) approach to vocabulary instruction. First-grade teachers at one school felt the structure wouldn’t work for young children – until I showed them a video I’d taken of a first-grade teacher at a nearby school doing just that. We talked together about what was beneficial about the structure and where adjustments could be made to align with their own students’ needs. They were onboard when they saw the energy of the students in the video and recognized the flexibility available so that they could make it their own.
 
If these teachers hadn’t talked with me about their resistance, their concerns would not have been addressed. Anything they tried related to these initiatives would have been half-hearted and would likely have had minimal impact. And resistance would have built up toward future suggestions.
 
When coaches recognize resistance (blatant or subtle), we support positive change by helping teachers express their concerns directly. Resistance hides feelings of discomfort. It is often the outward expression of fear of the unknown, concerns about control and vulnerability, or the fear of being judged. Before new ideas can be impactfully integrated, feelings of resistance need to be voiced, acknowledged, and addressed.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

 
Teachers as risk-takers:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/take-a-chance/
 
 
How to climb a ladder – or learn any other skill:
 
https://joshkaufman.net/how-to-climb-a-ladder/
 
 
An engaging technology-based team game to review vocab:
 
http://www.middleweb.com/33156/my-students-are-begging-to-review-vocabulary/
 
 
This picture book that perfectly describes the power of books and what total engagement (or “flow”) feels like:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgH7xmlt8JY
 
 
We probably all put too much on our plates.  How are we going to get done what needs to be done?  Here are 15 things productive people do:
 
http://www3.forbes.com/leadership/15-surprising-things-productive-people-do-differently/
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch and Twitter and Instagram @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com
---------------------------------
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! TODAY you can still use the code: JAN2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!

Recognizing Resistance during Instructional Coaching

As the new year gets underway, your district or school may be launching a new initiative – or you may be launching a new idea with a teacher (something coaches do on the regular!). If you are urging or supporting an implementation, expect resistance. Resistance to change is to be expected – it doesn’t mean you’re not doing your job well. In fact, it’s a lack of resistance that more probably indicates that something is awry. The saying at the gym, “No pain, no gain,” could be modified to, “No resistance, no change.” If there’s no resistance, we can be pretty sure that there’s not going to be growth. If an idea is big enough to cause growth, some resistance will be involved. Feelings of resistance do exist whenever a substantive initiative or idea is introduced.
 
Folks have a need for control and security. Change invites unpredictability and vulnerability. It’s our human inclination, then, to resist change. Resistance is a reaction to an emotion process, not a direct response to the idea being presented. Resistance is an Indirect expression of concern. Don’t take it personally 
 
School cultures that avoid confrontation at all costs are like stagnant pools, with nothing going in or out. One important (and often unacknowledged) job of a coach is to surface resistance. Sometimes, it’s obviously and outrightly expressed as complaint or anger. Hopefully, it’s more rationally expressed as appropriate and real concern. If you’re not hearing this, listen for these ways that resistance might be more subtly expressed:

·       Asking for more and more detail (about the initiative being implemented)

·       Giving more and more detail (about the uniqueness of their situation)

·       Saying the timing of the initiative is off (they are too busy right now)

·       Pedestal sitting (“those people” caused it or need it; “they” need to understand)

·       Silence (which rarely means consent and is evidence of absence of energy but not authentic absence of objection)*

All of these responses hide feelings of discomfort. There is fear of the unknown, a sense of loss of control or a loss of power. There may be vulnerability, a chance that they’ll be hurt some way in the process. They may worry about being judged.
 
For learning and change to occur, feelings of resistance need to be voiced and acknowledged before new ideas can be integrated. Expressed concerns lose their power. Help the teacher express their concerns directly - in words. If a teacher provides lots and lots of details about the unique situation in her class that might impact the implementation, say, “Good point.” If the teacher is silent, be specific. Say, “You must have some concerns about this idea. What have you been thinking?” Encouraging teachers to express their apprehensions gives you a chance to address them together, diffusing the resistance.
 
When you recognize resistance about an idea or initiative, don’t take it personally. Don’t take it as a sign that the initiative is off-course. It might, instead, be a sign that there’s a real opportunity for growth.
 
(Come back for next week’s post, where I’ll dive deeper into addressing resistance.)
 
*In creating this list (and post), I’ve drawn heavily from chapter 10 of Peter Block’s, Flawless Consulting.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Giving students freedom to move as they learn:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/what-kenny-taught-me/
 
 
Questions worth considering about coaching ethics:
 
https://newbycoachlive.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/why-think-about-ethics-in-coaching/
 
 
When reading response becomes a task:
 
https://pernillesripp.com/2017/07/22/on-reading-tasks/
 
 
Getting started with culturally responsive teaching:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/getting-started-culturally-responsive-teaching
 
 
The importance of non-academic, social-emotional learning:
 
https://fs24.formsite.com/edweek/images/Spotlight-Social-Emotional-Learning-Sponsored.pdf
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch and Twitter and Instagram @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com
---------------------------------
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! TODAY you can still use the code: JAN2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!